Weekend Update

Morning weigh-in: 179#, 12.5% BF

Not bad, but then again I did a towpath ride last night -- therefore there might be a bit of "suppression" in that figure -- and I also skipped going out -- therefore no "inflation." That's why I'm posting today even thought it's the weekend, doing a bit of bragging. Also, if things go back up by Monday (yes, I'm going out tonight), I'll at least have this weight documented.

Good day today: Slept in until 9:00, coffee shop for breakfast, killer workout at the gym (no Dawn: she has pinkeye), errands and a haircut; now I'm going to pick up a prescription, then work on my bike for tomorrow's ride. After that...

RIP: strange day today in the NY Times obits. I saw Lou Rawls there, and also Hugh Thompson (helicopter pilot who stopped the My Lai Massacre), and Yao Wenyuan (last surviving member of the Gang of Four), and Barry Cowsill (played in a band that was the inspiration for "The Partridge Family;" his post-Katrina remains were finally identified). I couldn't help thinking that they all seemed connected, as if it were a snapshot of "this is where we are today."

Darknet, Tristero, Naptime

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 10% BF

Got home last night, ate dinner (baked stuffed tofu w/ saurkraut) then played with the computer for a bit. I felt kind of tired so I'd already decided I wasn't going to the gym or anything, but I must have been more tired than I thought, couldn't keep my eyes open so I took a nap. Got up around 9:00, played with computer some more (GnuPG, minor changes to my website), then went back to bed.

Back to the Tinfoil Hat: Turns out that there's a Mozilla/Thunderbird extension for PGP/GPG, think I'll install it but first I'll have to get the latest version of GnuPG. Meantime, I see that WASTE is still available out there...

The Long And Winding Road

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 5.5% BF

Looks like I've been backtracking on my path to weight loss. Not too worried; yesterday was sort of written off anyway & there was also a bit of "bounceback from the exercise-suppressed low weight" going on... Dinner was salad and hot wings (plus two Magic Hat #9's) at the WB; exercise was a two mile run -- the road bike had a flat, which I discovered just as I was about to ride. Since I did laundry and messed with the computer beforehand, it was getting too late to both fix the tire and do a ride -- and I didn't want to ride offroad in the recent muck, so I wasn't switching bikes -- I dropped back and punted with the running option, which has the added bonus of taking less time.

I still managed to arrive at Which Brew kind of late, maybe 9:00 -- that's not really late for me, but I caught Brian just as he was getting ready to leave. He stuck around for one more beer & a little BS while I ate my salad, then took off. I was out of there quickly myself, didn't stay too late after eating, and I was home by 10:30.

Linux Voyager: I've been playing with ssh and scp lately, and now I'm looking again at GnuPG. Something in the air is making me think a lot about security and encryption...

So Far So Good

Morning weigh-in: 180#, 13% BF

Not too bad, three pounds or so in two days... Probably it's mostly water: I hit the gym last night, did a pretty hard warmup & a very satisfying workout, lotsa sweating though I felt pretty hydrated afterward as well as overnight. Had some hummus & pita before I went, threw in some laundry, hit the drycleaner on the way to the gym (opposite direction actually, but you know what I mean), then came home afterwards and had a salad plus the tofu/rice/stir-fry leftovers. Breakfast this morning was the oatmeal granola, then I had my "Monday Night Football Pool $2.00 Donut" when I got in to work -- doh! Tonight'll be tough too, it's Mug Club Night, therefore dinner will be at Which Brew. Well, I plan on doing a road ride before dinner, so I'll at least burn off some guilt.

Week One, Day Two

Morning weigh-in: 182.5#, 15.5% BF (weighed after the shower, elec resistance may have been messed up)

Breakfast, yesterday & today, was oat granola (w/organic whole milk) & coffee. Lunch, yesterday & today, was broiled chicken & pepper jack cheese on a hard roll. Dinner last night was tofu & veggie stir-fry over rice; tonight'll probably be leftover vegetarian chili. There were a few extras on the menu yesterday though: a donut and two trips to the candy machine at work, and some pita & hummus last night. I'm working on it.

Still feeling kind of run down, but that low-level cold seems to be abating. I skipped working out yesterday, played with the computer instead -- looking through Unix Power Tools, one of my Christmas gifts, and fiddling with ssh and scp. I may upgrade my Super Dimension Fortress membership (from ARPA to MetaARPA) so I can use some of the more powerful stuff like rsync, as well as X- and port-forwarding. I have all these capabilities at home, but currently have no place I can connect to, to use them...

Tonight is the gym, plus the start of laundry for the week.

Right Back Where I Started From

Morning weigh-in: 183.5#, 12.5% BF (eighteen pounds to lose)

OK, back at work after 2 weeks off, it's like I never left...

Therefore, Be It Resolved

My resolution(s):

1. Similar to the one two years ago, I want to drop a pound a week until I hit 165 -- tomorrow's weigh-in should tell me how many weeks that'll supposedly take. That's more of a goal than a resolution I guess; my actual resolution is probably more like: eat healthier, eat less, eat at home, skip the pizza & beer, do what you're supposed to to lose weight.

2. I'm also planning to get back into running regularly, and my goal is to run a 5k sometime in the spring, and a 10k sometime in the fall. (I'll also be doing at least one of the "King of the Hill" duathlons at Round Valley.) My resolution, I suppose, is to use running as a cardio exercise, and to build up my speed and distance, ie to train as a runner.

3. Bike more, and train on the bike more, and race. I want to go for distance this year, and I want to win (or at least be the top guy among my friends/peers). I'll be doing the Wilderness 101 again, and will probably do 24 Hours of Allamuchy solo, and the Vermont 50-Miler, and All-A-Muchy -- a-and don't forget my 12th consecutive Michaux race.

Hopefully, I'll forget all about this in a week or so...

A New Page, A New Leaf

I'm back. Didn't see the fireworks: I wasn't as prepared as I thought & so left here late, and it was slow going throught the snow & mud. Heard them though... Turned around at Stefko Boulevard rather than going all the way to Sand Island, figured I didn't want to have to deal with the possibility of drunken revelers. Happy New Year!!

The Book Of The Year

IN a few minutes I'm going out, to ride the towpath to Bethlehem, watch the First Night fireworks and usher along the old and new years right -- with a bike ride. Meantime, this quote I think sums up my internal life this year, or at least lately:

It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life and from use and disuse: a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. - Charles Darwin

That reminds me very strongly of Isaac Newton and the world view he ushered in, where all the different phenomena of the world could be seen, and demonstrated to be the manifold ramifications of simple, elegant ideas. Add to that a sentiment I saw expressed in the comments to one of Pharyngula's posts: "The essence of science is asking the question 'But how do you know what you know?' " and I think we have 2005 covered. Catch you on the flipside...

Pics, No Pics

I'm baaaack! First came Christmas, then a mini-vacation in Vermont, but now my time off is coming to a close...

Christmas was good, spent it with the family down in Englishtown; I just posted my photos at Flickr. Got some good presents, including a couple of unix reference books, must soon start rummaging in the system again.

Meantime, VT: The camera was not happy with the cold, so there are no pictures from Vermont. Had a good time though: arrived Monday night, dinner, XC skied Tuesday, fell a bunch of times (not used to really steep stuff on XC skis), including once where I got the Stubbed Toe From Hell, think I broke my right big toe. I almost took a picture of it back at the hotel: swollen, major bruising with a red outline at the joint -- almost looked like an x-ray, must have been hematoma or blood leaking out of the damaged place, or whatever. Skied on it the rest of the day but it was killing me. Wednesday I hiked/snowshoe'ed, to um, to give the foot a rest (actually it worked). The weather turned warm and rainy yesterday, so I blew off my last day and came home early. So-so vacation, but hey at least I went.

Festivus

Morning weigh-in: 184.5#, 10.5% BF

Reading: Medieval History: The Life and Death of a Civilization, by George F. Cantor. Verdict: awful, so far. It's a 60's-era college textbook; I got it at The Quadrant (coffeeshop & used bookstore), thinking it would be a good way to fill the gaps in my understanding of that time period. I just keep reading and going "that's not right!" or "what historian would say that?" Very Kennedy-era viewpoint -- if I read "rose to leadership" one more time I'm going to toss it out the window. I guess I'll put up with it, absorb the facts & see if my disagreements with the author won't at least sharpen and develop my own opinions.

Meantime, I also picked up Carpenter's Gothic by William Gaddis. Pretty good so far, but I'll probably put it down until I finish The Recognitions -- and that's been on hold until I get through Caesar's Civil Wars, which I finished today. By the way, something I didn't catch with Gaddis the first time around: he's actually pretty funny.

Hurting: I was going to go skiing this morning, but I woke up and my legs were killing me -- I did Janna's annual Christmas 5-Mile Run (or Bike) and Party, and I chose the "run" option. I've been running lately, but that's about double my typical distance. Better get used to it... (Went for a short ride on the singlespeed later in the afternoon, just to open up the legs a little.) I guess I did better than Brian though: he brought his bike for the event, fell on ice and apparently cracked a rib. I didn't stay too long after the run, even though Janna put on an incredible holiday meal, because their dog was really bothering me.

Went to Which Brew to say hi, also goodbye to one of the barmaids who got "a real job" and would be relocating to Philly. It was her last night on the job. Ran into another friend who poured out a tale of woe -- she got married in the summer to a much younger guy (another friend -- uh oh), and was now having serious "buyer's remorse," basically over maturity issues. This could be bad, could become several different kinds of ugly... all I'm looking for is a good time... so I went over to Porters' and then to Taco Bell (damn!).

One last thing: I posted some miscellaneous photos over at flickr.

Bottom Dead Center

Well, here it is, the winter solstice, shortest day of the year, the Yule (a word that may have come from the Old Norse for wheel, or not). Didn't do much today, went to a "solstice party" last night and slept in this morning; meantime, car is back in shop (the part I was waiting for came in), so I spent the day geeking out with biomathematical models. Ring out, solstice bells!

Roswell And Me

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 11% BF

Adventure Bike! Rode down the towpath today. Big deal, you say? Well, it was a big deal, very hard going, took about 3 hours to do what I usually do in an hour and a half. Much snow, but a lot of it has been ridden on by ATV's or trucks so it's compressed and rideable. Was supposed to ride with my friend Mary from Genesis, but she had to be home for contractors, couldn't make the ride so it was only me and my pilot Roswell. Lotsa crashes in the ice. Beautiful day though.

About what you'd expect: The verdict is in, judge rules Intellingent Design is religion, not science, and therefore cannot be taught in Pennsylvania public schools (at least, it can't be taught as science). Lehigh University's own Michael Behe testified on behalf of the Intelligent Design crowd, and apparently his testimony is what sank them. Ah, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! What a doofus -- and with quality edumacators like that, it's no wonder the Lehigh kids spend all their time drinking...

The Hand vs The Mind

Looks like the mind won this one... I've been avoiding the bike, letting the hand heal and it seems to have gotten quite a bit better over the past week or so, though I've also been gaining weight -- and also going stir-crazy: no bike, no peace of mind, apparently. So anyway, I bled the front brake, did some minor repairs (no need for new seal, looks like) & replaced the fluid -- aka solved the real reason I haven't been riding -- did that yesterday and was good to go for today. There was a little stress on the hand and I feel it now, but I think it was the right call. Gotta watch out though, my mind was the one to benefit from the ride, and my mind, since it gets to call the shots, always seems to win these little head games...

I've been running and going to the gym lately, but I think that they just don't do enough to keep the weight down, especially compared to biking. Stick with what you know works, if you can, so although I'll still be running & lifting I think I'll make sure the biking stays in the mix -- at least until I have to replace it with the XC skis...

I've been thinking about goals and strategies, realistic or otherwise, after running across this guy's blog. He's got a very laudable goal, but I think he might be setting himself up for failure. I remember a saying to the effect that you never really a failure, since you can always get back up, or maybe "it's not the falling but the staying down that marks failure," or something like that. Anyway, that's all well and good, but if you find yourself constantly getting up and falling down you should really check to see that you haven't accidentally tied your shoelaces together. There's also this: "the knee is nearer than the shin," -- that was supposedly a favorite expression of Caesar Augustus, meaning people take care of the things closer to their hearts, or ought to, than they do the other stuff. Healthy is a lifestyle, and if you're serious about it there are things (like diet and exercise) that have to take priority over other things (like working late every night, eating fast food for the convenience, etc); if you don't have time for exercise, or healthy sleep or whatever, you make the time by taking it from other parts of your life. Still, I hope the guy succeeds; I feel for the dude, I'm actually inspired by him and think I'll check in now and then to see how he's doing, keep me motivated for my own weight loss. Now, off to Taco Bell...

Enough With The Pictures Already!

40th Birthday: Chris Acts His Age
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

One last set of photos uploaded, and now I'm all caught up. Here are my pictures from my brother's surprise 40th birthday party. Once again, enjoy!

More Picctures!

Gangster Christmas: Me and Greg
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

I just posted my photos from the Chain Gang Christmas Party; you can find them here. Enjoy!

Pictures!

Pisgah: Scenic View
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

I uploaded the rest of my North Carolina vacation pictures -- or at least, the rest of the ones I planned to upload. You can check them out here.

Full Plate

Morning weigh-in: 182#, 10% BF

I was going to go to the gym last night, but my legs felt tired so I took a rest day, played with the computer & ended up going to bed at midnight anyway. I played with this & that, downloaded some more nonlinear optimization software, also moved photos from the camera card to computer & processed them. I put a few from my North Carolina trip on flickr, but they were experiencing difficulties and the process was taking too long (bedtime! bedtime!), so the rest will have to wait. Tonight, hopefully.

I think it's time for a bike ride, so I'll be skipping the run tonight & taking out the singlespeed. Maybe I'll do some of the towpath, but I mostly plan to just fool around, maybe cruise downtown for a while etc. I have a little work to do on the Turner, must bleed the brake lines & see if I need new seals, I think they're leaking -- that all is supposedly slated for tonight as well, but it also has "not gonna happen" written all over it...

Tomorrow I'll be hitting the gym, and will probably do a run beforehand (I don't want to skimp on the weekly running quota, I'm trying to build my mileage up). Then comes Bill & Jackie's "Christmas Cookie Party" (an afternoon event for me), followed by the Valley Mountain Bikers Christmas Party (WARNING! DANGER! BLOWOUT!) at Greg H's -- I'll be blowing off Joe G's party to do this one, dang.

I may or may not go out tonight; given the stuff I want to do I probably shouldn't, and I've also gone out twice -- on "school nights," no less -- this week, but tonight should be a good night to pass along Christmas greetings, many of my friends should be out & about. However, I've got a huge "third eye" pimple on my forehead (typical cold-weather burn: I've really neglected the humidifier lately, finally turned it on again last night), don't feel especially sociable so maybe I will stay in.

Way back at Beth & Kevin's Chili Party, Kevin broke out his new camera: it's good for photography as well I guess, but its video capabilities were what really impressed me. Smaller than my digital camera, rugged, with a 1-Gigabyte memory card and a remote "helmet cam," the thing was made for cyclists. Kevin is a motorcyclist, so we ended up watching some motocross videos he made on trails in West Virginia. Killer toy, still kind of pricey (approx $400) but it should come down -- wish I could remember the brand and model! Anyway, I'm thinking about getting one eventually, so last night I started messing with the video mode on my camera. Stay tuned...

By the way, things are real busy at work, but I'll be on vacation next week.

Oddly Enough, It Never Ends

Morning weigh-in: 184#, 12% BF (aaaargh!!)

Went home last night, made/ate a healthy dinner & played with computer, then ran, played with 'puter some more, and finally went down to Which Brew to catch The Insidious Rays -- unfortunately they seemed to be busy with some shark-jumping project, so I took off, ended up at Taco Bell (sigh). I expect the beer didn't help either...

I Miss Gilda Radner: I'm driving in to work yesterday, county road and the woman in front of me is driving slowly -- well, not slow exactly but slower than I want to go, not the best way to get on my good side. I see she has a bumper sticker, sez: "Well-Beloved Women Seldom Make History." WTF??!? That got me annoyed, thought up some quick counter-examples, angry analysis & deconstruction, then just decided to make like Amanda and say "well, I blame the Patriarchy." Had a great rant set for it, but googled the phrase and found that the bumper sticker really read "Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History." Oh. Well, that's very different then. Never mind! (And speaking of smart women bloggers, here's the latest from Chicago, and from New York.)

And one final oddment: You can see those "this is a weapon" shirts/tattoos here. Historical interest only I'm sure, though they're probably still printing them at Piccatinny Arsenal.

Odds & Ends #5

Just one more loose end... Here is something about Huntington's disease, a terrible affliction that my cousin Joe suffers from. I found it in Tangled Bank #43 ("tangled bank" -- what a cool quote that comes from!), via Pharyngula of course. Not very close to a cure, but they are starting to understand it.